


Everyone is Really Confused (Happy is not)

by Antartique



Series: AUs I may write occassionally [1]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Trans, FTM!E.N.D., FTM!Natsu, Gen, Heavy Spoilers for just about everything, Heavy Spoilers for the Dragneels, Heavy Spoilers for the Heartfilias, Trans Character, Zeref is the cutest creator and you can't tell me otherwise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-05-13 20:57:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5716852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antartique/pseuds/Antartique
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Manga spoilers) You should probably check your chromosomes when making a person, else you end up with your little brother being a little sister. Zeref did that and he thinks it's pretty cool. (Everything is the same, but Natsu is FTM, because why the hell not)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Zeref Dragneel was known as a prodigy through the magical community. Too smart, too powerful, too curious; he was feared and respected by those who had seen him in action, he was feared by himself and he was respected by his creations. He was, however, unsecure of many things through his life: is creating beings smart? Does the world spin left or right? Was the Leo Celestial Spirit annoying by nature or was that just with him?

Zeref Dragneel was sure of one thing in his life, and that was he had a little brother. Baby,  _ male _ brother, who used to call him  _ Selef _ and used to run around his feet naked when summer hit.

Zeref Dragneel does not quite know, then, why the baby  _ brother _ curled up on his working space has a) pink hair and b) woman anatomy.

He can explain the pink hair as a side effect of the immense amounts of Dragon fire and ethernano he used to create and stabilize Natsu’s gestating body while he (she?) was still in the fake womb he developed for all his creations. The womb had, expectedly, shattered upon Natsu’s birth (it had been close to shattering when he created Mard Geer), giving Zeref no option other than cease his experimentation or create another womb, which he did not quite feel like doing. Instead, he recorded Natsu’s birth in the book with his (her?) name and brought the sleeping apparent three-years-old back to the side room to check on his (her) health.

Natsu is a girl. That much is clear once Zeref runs a quick check up on Natsu’s vitals and asks Alpha and Gamma to see Natsu’s inner anatomy. The leader of the triplets tells him plainly the child is indeed female, with everything that implies, and also more human than all his other creations: Natsu is a fertile child  _ girl _ , making Natsu the closest to true humanity out of all of Zeref’s attempts for it.

He shrugs and, after asking Beta to care for his child  _ sister _ , goes back to the experiment room to see what could have gone  _ wrong . _ He had used Natsu’s preserved body as a base for the new Natsu, with little few modifications to make his new  _ sister _ fire-and-energy-resistant, so he does not quite understand what went wrong. The soul is proper, as well: it is Natsu Dragneel, still lingering from after his death, much like both their parents who constantly nag Zeref about doing the right thing and helping the world rebuild (he won’t. He is way more worried about rebuilding his family than the world, but neither of his parents were willing to be guinea pigs to his experimenting). So if it is not a problem of the materials, it must be a problem with Zeref’s modifications.

He pulls out Mard Geer’s and Sayla’s books to compare them to Natsu’s, but then Acnologia’s call sounds from closeby and he has to abandon his job. He knows he will  _ never _ remember to go back to it, so he decides to just give up and pack up. He is done with this safehouse, anyways.

Alpha, Beta and Gamma help him skip cities, Beta carrying Natsu and Natsu’s book (E.N.D., the cover says) while Alpha and Gamma carry everything else. They flee just on time to hear Acnologia crush the small town and start a long fight with Weisslogia, and flee just on time to coincide with Igneel’s tired retreat. The King gives them a lift and, after bidding Zeref luck, sets off to locate Grandeeney.

The four of them settle in a new hiding place and, after recording his day and discoveries in the Book of Tartaros and the Book of Natsu, respectively, call it a day.

Girl Natsu will not speak. She ignores Zeref’s teachings and denies Gamma’s clothes. She tears apart the room Zeref has given her after Beta calls her ‘such a pretty girl’ and only relaxes once Alpha gives her a pale tunic for both genders. It is close enough to what boy Natsu used to wear in the old days, so Zeref chalks it down to familiarity and leaves it at that.

After the third time they have to run away from Acnologia in two months, Zeref starts planning a portable home (he writes his notes in the Book of Natsu, because the Book of Tartaros is his journal, even if the Book of Tartaros is what keeps Alpha, Beta and Gamma alive). The tenth time Natsu seems to be confused about herself, Alpha throws a quick disguise over her and promises he, now him, to teach it to him later. After the fifth time Natsu burns down a closeby location, earning him the nickname of devil child, Zeref clips the pages with the record of Natsu’s powers and hides them behind a mid-powered seal.

The first time Igneel meets Natsu properly, he laughs and laughs, and then takes him away. Plan take-down-Acnologia is on its way, with four children and one Natsu being at the core of it. The first time Anna meets Natsu and Igneel with Zeref as a chaperone, she opens Gemini’s gate and asks them to teach Natsu transformation magic since Igneel could not do it.

The first time the Leo Celestial Spirit meets Natsu, he becomes a lion and lets Natsu ride him into the distance, making Igneel, Zeref and Anna panic in the most logical way. Three demons, two dragons and five Celestial Spirits begin a frantic search for the Fire Dragon Prince -now apparent five-years-old-, only to find him climbing on Weisslogia, with Leo looking on in amusement.

The second time Leo kidnaps Natsu, Zeref does not panic -he is making a scarf out of Igneel’s shed scales, carefully joining them together over a strip of Celestial fabric-, Anna does not panic, Igneel does not panic from where he is keeping watch over the Heartfilia heir. Baby Lucia naps calmly until Capricorn manifests, yelling something about Acnologia, Natsu and Leo; Virgo screams when Lucia is shoved into her arms and everyone is warped over to Natsu’s apparent location by Zeref’s half-mad magic.

Natsu is on Acnologia’s arms, sleeping, and Acnologia is looking at him with something akin to interest. In the midst of war, Zeref screams himself raw at Acnologia, takes back his brother, and then screams himself raw at Leo after the Celestial Spirits, the demon triplets and Igneel manage to drive the mad human-turned-dragon-turned-human away.  _ Never again _ , Zeref says, picking up the broken remains of his first children;  _ never again will Natsu be alone with  _ you, and Leo rages in rightful anger and promises to hate him forever.

Zeref is banned from the Celestial Spirit contract after he almost kills everyone in the area, including the Spirits and  _ Igneel _ , and cleans the memories of Natsu off the Celestial beings’ minds. No more Natsu for them ever again, he promises himself as he buries the remains of his three most loyal creations and locks the Book of Tartaros away. He hands the book to Anna much, much later, when Lucia turns five and claims she will marry Zeref.

The first time the five child Dragon Slayers meet, they make the cutest sight  _ ever _ , and Zeref finds himself curling up next to Igneel and Grandeeney holding back squeals. His little family is the cutest and it is only missing Anna, on her mission to find the last key of Aquarius she is missing to work the Eclipse. So, Zeref watches as Natsu plays with a small Wendy, Gajeel pulls on their hair, and Rogue naps on Sting while Sting baby-blabbers to Natsu about something. It is adorable and he feels  almost sad when he has to clear the memories of the event from them a couple years later, in their sleep, when they are carefully put inside the Gate to grow up alone four hundred years in the future.

Zeref kisses Natsu’s forehead, whispers he will wait, how proud he is, how proud the triplets would have been; he kisses his cheek, whispers a goodbye and watches as his baby brother vanishes from his life for the next centuries.

Crying, he seals away the Book of Natsu, hands it to Anna, and disappears off the face of Ishgar.

* * *

 

Three decades later, Lucia cries on him because her mother is dead, her children are soldiers and the Book of her Older Brother Natsu has been stolen from her house. She cries on him because Acnologia has killed the land, the dragons are dying and the painting of her best friends is burnt to ashes.

Unknown years later, maybe two generations later, twenty years old Amadeus Heartfilia steals the Book of Tartaros with the help of Leo and Aries, beginning a chain of long and unfortunate events. Another unknown years later, the events come to fruition in the shape of plans are set into motion for Zeref’s sake, without his knowledge from his growing nation of Alverez.

Centuries later, Layla Heartfilia opens a Gate, and the only spirit who can remember who asked for that favor is not present. Zeref watches from a safe distance across the ocean while the Spirits take the children to scatter them around Ishgar, and watches as the first thing Natsu does upon waking up is  _ scream _ in despair.

Uncaring, Zeref covers himself with a blanket, wonders vaguely where Mavis is and falls asleep to dream about a childish boy-turned-girl-turned-boy running around his feet and calling him  _ Selef _ .

* * *

* * *

 

Natsu Dragneel’s first task in the morning had always been to recast the transformation magic on himself, take a long bath on the frozen cold lake in the mountains and then check if they had any food left from days before or if Igneel would have to hunt in the morning. Then, he would have the duty of lighting the fire (something that became easier by each passing day, his Fire resting inside his heart waiting for the spark), helping an already awake Igneel brush the leaves and branches off his wings, and cook his breakfast until it was warm (cooked meat was disgusting according to both Igneel and Natsu). 

That had been how his childhood had gone, with no interaction with humans, unable to speak Common Ishgarian unless it was with a slight hiss and heavy rottics. Occasionally, a white dragon would come by to play-fight with Igneel, or another black one with a cute metallic sheen would come by to  _ really _ fight with him. The feathered dragon would appear once in a moon cycle to give him a check up and lecture him about the  _ expected changes _ in his body, and the dragon with the terrifying eyes would appear every three moons to teach him how to read. Natsu was raised by Dragons, for Dragons, to rule Dragons.

Natsu has vague, dreamy memories of five children and a black haired man constantly hovering ( _ family _ ), a woman with long golden hair and a saint-like smile ( _ family _ ) and a scary man full of scars who showed up to offer him a better life ( _ wrong _ ). Igneel had said those were memories of his dreams to have family and left it at that, but Natsu was never quite so sure because he also remembers a crowd of Dragons, so many Dragons. A flaming crown on Igneel’s head and Dragons  _ laughing _ and howling, clamouring for peace.

Unfortunately, there are no dragons anymore. No Igneel. No Weisslogia mock-fighting with Igneel, no Grandeeney telling him he is  _ fine the way he is, damn it _ , no Skiadrum or Metalicana to steal Natsu away when they felt like it. No Dragons flying in the sky, covering the sun with their wings to give Natsu his wanted cloudy day; no Dragons that, every few weeks, dropped by with dead animals in their claws and barrels of fruit for them.

There are no Dragons, but there is a man called Gildarts, who looks at Natsu and picks him up and brings him to a huge building filled with life and people. There is a small white haired girl and a small red haired girl and an  _ ice cold _ boy who reminds him of one of those children in his dreams ( _ Rogue _ ); there is an old man stamping a fairy on his shoulder, over the faded gray flaming crown that is his fake-birthmark. There is warmth and  _ hot food _ and a bed and  _ people _ willing to teach him how to be less Dragon and more human.

There are no Dragons anymore, but there is Fairy Tail. There is no Igneel, but there is a new family, and Natsu laughs and cries with them.

* * *

 

Lisanna finds an egg around Magnolia and brings it to the Guild, and the light blue bumps and yellow-white shell remind Natsu of  _ Dragons _ . He steals the egg, because it is  _ his Dragon _ , and curls up around it with all his heat every night. He has decided he will name it Happy, because the egg makes him happy, and it will make the whole guild happy as well.

At times, he acts like a dragon with shiny things and, at times, he acts like a female dragon with eggs. He realizes this when Lisanna and Mirajane and Erza come knocking at his door one morning to ask about the egg, and he snarls and fights and throws them out.  _ His egg, his child . _

Happy is born one morning that Natsu is still curled up around it -him-, and instantly latches on to Natsu calling him  _ mama _ . It is on that moment that Natsu realizes the slight mistake on his part.

It takes him a few minutes to convince Happy that Natsu is not his  _ mother _ , and that he does not want a child, really, but will live with him being a friend. Happy is confused, because Natsu  _ smells _ like a mother, but he claims he is not, but accepts it as one quirk of human-dragons and does his best to not make a mistake.

Occasionally, Happy slips and calls Natsu  _ mama _ . And so it is for ages to come.


	2. II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natsu on Lucy, Jellal and Gajeel; Zeref watches.

Every few days, Natsu will look at himself in a mirror and _think_ about the past, the present and what could be the future. He will pull his hair up and pretend, he will try on flowy tunics to remember, he will make crowns out of flowers for his hair. Happy likes to braid his hair into dozen of little braids with small golden trinkets, and Natsu lets him, because they are family.

Other times, Natsu just looks at his naked body and _thinks_. He is petite and light, with colours that don't match that of Ishgarian citizens, with a figure that is not in any way similar to any Ishgarian woman he has ever met. He does not _like_ his birth-body, capable of feeding children, of _bearing_ children, but at times he realizes that it might be a hint to where he came from, where he is supposed to go.

His travels with Happy and the others never take him out of Ishgar and he has never had the chance to meet anyone from Alakitasia or any native from Tenroujima. Upon meeting Mavis, he thinks about it -what if his parents were originally from there?-, but then realizes he would have had to be ancient to have been born in Tenroujima, and he is _not_ ancient. Maybe he was born from an Ishgarian woman, but all those he has met are _excessively_ curvy (Lucy, Erza) and from what Lisanna always said, that was a characteristic of Ishgarian women.

Natsu is not. He is plain, with little curves and freckles and a skin that tans pretty damn nice (if he so says himself). Definitely nothing like Erza, or Mirajane, or Lucy, though Lucy…

The first time Natsu met Lucy, he dreamed. He dreamed of a woman with golden hair smiling, he dreamed of a great lion carrying him away (leoleoleo), of a man with black hair holding him up to a Dragon (Igneel) and teaching him to read. He dreams of the woman feeding him candy ( _don't tell Ze-_ ), of the woman introducing him to a girl of bright blue eyes ( _Lucia_ ) and of watching the night come through a great glass window.

Lucy Heartfilia is the first person who makes Natsu _recall_. The Guild loves him, but memories made with the Guild are of the guild alone, never of the far past with Igneel and the group of people -who he rarely remembers- that _raised_ Natsu.

Lucy is a source of _nice_ memories, nice dreams, of a familiarity that makes his heart ache. The Guild is made of fluffy memories, dangerous memories, near death memories when he broke the rules and got too close to a drunk Mage, but Lucy is the first one that makes him go back to the past and _want to stay there_.

Licy is also the source of Aquarius, who never looks directly at Natsu unless she needs to, who never speaks to him, who smells of fear and familiarity and of another land, another time. Aquarius, who Lucy listens to and who told her to _never talk to Natsu again, for your safety_ , and then Lucy went against her advice and kept talking to Natsu and being friends with Natsu anyways.

For that reason Lucy is also, after Happy, the first person Natsu felt comfortable enough around to talk about his more secret problems. Not that he does, because he doesn't want to trouble Lucy more than he already does, but at times he will go with her to sightsee and window shop around the city, and he will feel like a child again. He will feel like he can bare his heart to her, because she understands that he is a child at the soul, and a child he will never stop being.

A child who only wants to be accepted for what he is, be it Dragon, Prince or even a woman-on-disguise.

Lucy is not the only one, though. After the fateful meeting with Lucy (a sister, a friend, _family_ ), after the fight for Lullaby and Deliora ( _a book that opens to a single page, another failure, three faceless siblings with funny names_ ), after meeting Gajeel ( _metal and a smell of sweet berries and sulfur_ ), after Loki reveals his nature ( _Leo, the Black Dragon and a man of many faces,_ death)... And then, Jellal.

* * *

Jellal and dark magic. Jellal and forbidden knowledge. Jellal and _Zeref_ (and is that not a nostalgic name, even though Natsu cannot remember from _where_ and _when_ ). Jellal and Siegrain and the Tower of Heaven. Jellal and Etherion, and then Natsu and Etherion and Dragon Force (so much _power_ ).

The R-system, the Tower of Heaven, the familiarity. _This one did not work the first time_ , the man says in Natsu's dreams, _but it worked with you_ , and the man holds Natsu and blames himself for another failure. _Life magic should not be taboo_ , but then he went and built the basis for Etherion, _just in case there is someone I cannot defend you against, right?_

His memories show him three coffins and a broken egg, a flower of crystal and a shelf of books. _Alphabetagamma_ _rest here, will you come to visit?_ , and later, much later Natsu brings flowers for people he cannot remember but misses badly, for others he can remember and doesn't miss at all, and for the memories that he should remember but does not ( _Caelum was our home, once_ , the man of his dreams says, and Natsu and Igneel once came by when there was no Tower and only a tree, a mausoleum and a stone house, and he adds it to his notes and realizes he may be _way older than Erza, how_?).

He fights Jellal and almost loses, because Igneel told him to never show his trump card unless necessary, but Erza was knocked out and Jellal was a _threat_ , and really, who cares if someone sees him by what he is if they will not be believed by anyone? Igneel _told_ him that he could keep the transformation magic on at all times, because people _would not understand_ , but Etherion and Dragon Force are _too much_ even for his body ( _made of Ethernano, gestated in lacrima, resistant to everything_ ), so he fights Jellal with everything he can.

Natsu always pushed himself to his limits, expanding his magic reservoir as much as he could with the transformation magic _always_ covering him. When he could do his mid-level techniques without a need to drop the disguise, he continued (Happy asked him to stop, but he could not). When he could barely pull one of his weakest high-level skills while still keeping the transformation magic, he continued. When he absorbs the Etherion and almost loses control of it, he gives up.

He is not a master of transformation magic. That is Mirajane.

"Dispel." he whispers to himself, as Jellal talks in front of him and Erza cannot pay attention to anything but him. He feels the magic retreat from himself, back to where it should be ( _you_ are _magic and magic is you)_ , and Jellal's eyes widen when Natsu knocks out Erza again.

He gives himself a moment to wrap his scarf around his chest, because he _does not care_ , but living near Gray has taught him a sense of modesty in both forms and winning a battle because his opponent is _distracted_ sounds like a dishonorable thing to do. And Jellal may or not be possessed by something that is _not_ Zeref or whoever (because whoever would _never hurt Natsu, I made this for you, I would never use it against you_ ) _,_ but even then his cheeks glow red.

"Y-you are-" and someone-else-as-Jellal-or-maybe-Jellal stutters, his eyes going to Natsu's shoulder (Fairy Tail fairy, not a flaming crown), and Natsu shrugs because _you can't ever show your final card too early_ and proceeds to _win_.

Jellal turns out to be a nice person, in the end, even if between him and Natsu himself they do end up destroying an illegal tower built atop an ancient graveyard of four centuries of age (much later, they will both agree that it was extremely disrespectful, but also definitely necessary, _even if your parents and family were buried there_ ). He never reveals Natsu's carefully kept secret, too, which makes him be extra nice were Natsu's eyes.

Natsu is doubly lucky that Erza never saw him, and is grateful to his old tradition of hiding his injuries from anyone but Happy. When he picks Erza up in the beach she does not question his tattered clothes and buttoned up jacket, and she does not remember his smaller figure and freckles. She and Lucy and Gray and Juvia insist on him going to the doctor as well, but he takes the coward's way out and flees, because they _will not understand_.

He blames all his insecurities on hormones and lets Happy take care of him for the next three days. If, after he assimilates the extra ethernano completely, his hair is longer and his usual Happy-chosen golden trinkets shimmer with pink light, he ignores it and _also_ blames it on hormones.

* * *

Three days is not enough to change the universe he lives in, nor is it enough to challenge his principles. It is, apparently, enough for the Guild to become the new house of a jerk by the name of Gajeel, who _irks_ Natsu so much because he tried to take Lucy away.

Natsu does not get along with Gajeel. Not only because he is Gajeel and used to be part of Phantom Lord, but also because Gajeel knows something Natsu does not want the others to know. And he does not trust Gajeel, not yet, probably not ever.

At first, it was really subtle. When Natsu and Happy would nap in the guildhouse, Gajeel would sit closeby like a sentinel: metal and sweet berries and _iron_ , being around Natsu like a constant presence ever since Gajeel arrived the Guild. A sentinel that watches constantly and at times looks at him with narrowed eyes and a confused expression.

 _You smell like that woman_ , he says one day, pointing to Mirajane and looking at Natsu like he hid all the secrets of the universe. He is so _familiar_ , like a friend long lost or an annoying older brother, all black hair and loose clothes. He _feels_ so familiar, like a fire at his house, like the warm raw meat Natsu used to eat, like Igneel's underwing when it rained.

Gray tries to attack Natsu and Gajeel blocks him and Happy from the unseen attack. He looks doubly confused, acting on instinct, and Natsu wonders what instinct is he responding to. His lessons with the Dragons come back, for a moment, and _we protect our fellow Kings, no matter what they do; we are an Alliance of many kingdoms and we protect each other._

 _Is it transformation magic_ , Gajeel asks one day, when Natsu tries to be an anonymous _woman_ and wears his loose tunics, his shoulder wraps and disguises his hair into a nostalgic jet black. His face is rounder, his form smaller, yet Gajeel recognizes him because his smell is unforgettable _Natsu_. Gajeel lays his hand on Natsu's flat head, curious, and ruffles his hair for a sense of normalcy.

Happy stays at the Guildhouse, that day, and Gajeel and Natsu wander Magnolia sharing tales of their Dragon fathers, of their long ago unseen dwellings, of how to best cook meat so it will be raw but still warm. They share stories of extinguished flowers, of flavorful fruits and of towns long destroyed. They are older than they should be and it shows when they talk with ancient words, heavy rhotics and sibilant hisses.

 _You smell like a woman_ , Gajeel says once, and Natsu freezes around a sleeping Happy and brings up the flame of his life and heart. People will _not understand_ even if it is alright, and Grandeeney said that it was alright but he cannot be sure that Gajeel _will understand_ his odd self, his split instincts and his weird urges.

He prepares for a fight but gets none, as Gajeel simply nods and sits on the ground, his back to the tree they were using as a shade. He looks at the Guild celebrating something closeby, then at the sleeping Happy and right at Natsu again, and Natsu shudders. _They do not know, do they?_ Gajeel questions and brings out all of Natsu's insecurities, all of his anxiety, and douses the fire with some small yet big words.

 _I would never attack a nesting mother_ , he says, _and I would never reveal a mother's secrets_. Because Gajeel may have been Phantom Lord, but he is a Dragon first, and Dragons protect their own in all senses of the word.

Gajeel never tells anyone and, at times, when Natsu is napping with Happy in the guildhouse, he will sit besides them and nap along. Dragons are lonely hoarders, but they are protectors first, and Natsu seems to be hoarding children around him like Grandeeney would have done had she still been around. He feels oddly protective about it.

They are a weird lounge, the cat and the Fire Dragon(ess) and the Metal Dragon, but they are a lounge inside a bigger flutter, and that is okay.

And then Laxus attacks.

Zeref watches. He watches Natsu grow, watches him build bonds, watches him become the brother he would never have again. From Alverez, where he rules; from Magnolia, every few years; from Tenroujima, a few months before his undeserved long sleep, he watches the person Natsu has become.

He is worried, but also not. His magic is dark and deadly, but Natsu balances all that, being light and fire and _life_ like the Dragneel clan used to be. The loophole of his magic, the sole being who can survive him; Natsu is that and more, his own family, his own creation which goes farther and closer than anyone else in the world. Natsu is life made, life built and life born, all in one, and Zeref watches.

Caring for a life so much to kill for it. Caring for a life _so much_ to destroy everything around him. Zeref did not think it was possible, at first: when making Natsu, he had been worried he would one day snap and destroy his own brother, his own children, his own magic. But that did not happen, as the curse is… weird.

Care too much for life and lose control. Not care about it and earn control. But if you care about a single life so much to beg for destruction, then that is an anchor. If you care about a dead being too much, it also becomes an anchor, but Mavis is not _dead_ , not really. If you _don't care_ about a life, then it will live; if you _care_ about a life for the wrong reasons, it lives as well.

In the old days, when it was just his demons, Igneel and Zeref himself, he held his magic in control because his direct opposites were with him. Igneel, a being of pure life, and Natsu, a being of dark yet bright fire. Then Anna, made of life and bringer of life, and Lucia, proudly born from a human and a Spirit. Then the Celestial Spirits, who could die yet were made of life of the stars; then the demons, made of darkness, death and magic (and books, paper and ink maintaining their lives until Zeref himself dies or their book is destroyed).

Acnologia -dear eldest, companion and rival- was death, like Zeref himself, but they never stayed around each other long enough for their magic to act up. A dragon of destruction and dark fire, like Natsu, yet not like Natsu; it is curious. They could never harm each other with their magics (one not properly alive, the other not a Dragon), but if things got too far to get their hands involved, either one would leave because their clash could wipe out miles of age and souls. Both cared for others, in their own way: Acnologia saw humans as producers, Zeref saw humans as potential murderers of his person.

He watches Jellal and his misfortune, caused by Zeref and a long forgotten Celestial Mage. He is immune, just like many others who suffered in Zeref's name, immune because his curse wants him to watch how those who were touched by his hand and cruelty live. All of those he loved in his immortal curse, and hated enough to wish dead, and all of those who moved only because of Zeref himself. Acnologia. Igneel. Natsu. Alpha, Beta, Gamma. Anna, Lucia, Amadeus. Layla.

He watched Amadeus as he gave up on his name, as the name of _Heartfilia_ is passed from Celestial Mage to Celestial Mage, and watched Amadeus and Mard Geer bring destruction in his name. In the end, he _had_ made it to Zeref ( _I return to you_ ) and survived the encounter, only to be betrayed by his own half-mad Spirits. He watched Amadeus' children, watched the Dark Guilds, watched them bring his children back through their books, watched them build all those failed experiments he had made in his life.

He now watches Jellal, sleeping and unaware. Jellal who was forced to do so many things in Zeref's wronged name, Jellal who only suffered for him, Jellal who _fears_ death more than anything. He watches Ultear in her misguided ignorance, he watches Fairy Tail and Mavis, he watches Rogue and Sting and Wendy and waits for them to meet Natsu.

He seals Nirvana away and heads to Tenroujima. It is time for a nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not supposed to have a plot, but then Edolas began developing its own plot... It will still be updated whenever I feel like doing so.
> 
> Why is Natsu so different? Because he is male, but his body is still that of a female, and since he is closer to a dragon than a human his instincts are pretty much that of a dragoness. He is possessive and at times motherly, because that's how it just is, especially since he has Happy around. His memories, though, that's part of the AU. Gajeel is pretty much the same, his dragon side says he should protect Natsu and Happy (a nesting mother), and that's what he is doing. Zeref is a cute brother, fight me. He also left his research books scattered around his old safe houses, so that's the reason the R-System is at Caelum. The Heartfilia family is rather weird and Amadeus is an OC.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally, this started as FTM Natsu AU and it was just Jellal being like 'oh shit' and Zeref squealing about things, but then I got bored and lazy and whatever. So, here, have the Dragneel family's early life. You can ask requests for people's reactions, because everything is the same but people act slightly different.


End file.
